Great intro, crap ending

Rating: 7/10 (29 July 2005)

Michael Bay... I really thought you were onto something different from your smash-em-up, shaky cam, action flick. The first hour of this film was excellent, but why did it have to become an action film with the moral fiber of Commando? In the beginning, we get the message that life, any life, is precious, then all the bad guys (even the not-so-bad guys) just start dropping like bricks, and we're supposed to feel happy when THAT happens. The initial chase scenes were great, but as time went by, they started to drag and then just became pointless.
The final "showdown," as it were, was not necessary at all. Whatever happened to the "going to the media" plan? He could have still got Johanson with him and made a pretty good case, considering her famous host was dying at the hospital at same that time. Then he would have had enough evidence to get people to actually listen to him, and enough support to return to that place of doom with a small army at the very least.
But no, this is an action movie, so they must do this on their own, with a plan that required at least 95% dumb luck. And another thing, though we have improved on how we deal with the bad guy's demise in films since the 80's, many of us still think that the only way to deal with the bad guy is to kill him in a gruesome fashion, but really, wouldn't public exposure and shame have been better? Sean Bean had no time to even realize he had lost. Trust me, all he was thinking was "I'm in a lot of pain." The Shawshank Redemption, though a different kind of film, dealt with its villain in a way that I think could have worked very well for this film too.
As for the last scene (okay, second to last scene excluding the two of them on that stupid boat), "Yay, they've all escaped!" Now what? They're in the middle of the desert, and nothing has been explained to them, so they're all completely confused. Great finish, Michael Bay. At the very least, let us see that the government allowed them all to live the rest of their days out on a real island. Sappy ending, I know, but much more rewarding than what we got. That wasn't even a finish to the right movie! It was the ending from the bloody Lion King! I hear you all on some of the plot holes, and most of them I could overlook and still enjoy the movie. But this ending killed it for me.